A LOT of racing people don’t like the Shergar Cup. Jockeys you’ve never heard of riding at course they’ve never ridden at. Serious prize money but no group races, just six handicaps.

The competition has been labelled a gimmick and an illogical one, given there is a Girls team vs three teams based on geographical location.

But all of the above is immaterial when over 30,000 people come through the gates and into the world of racing. Ascot must be doing something right.

A total of 30,000 is a huge number for any racing event. That aligns Shergar Cup Day alongside Qipco British Champions Day as the two most popular fixtures at Ascot outside of the royal meeting. Considering that the aforementioned reasons for not liking the Shergar Cup can be applied to only the more dedicated racing fans, it is safe to assume that a large proportion of the Shergar Cup crowd, are novice fans of the sport and may be attending a race meeting for the first or second time.

Of course there were other non-racing attractions at Ascot last Saturday. Feeder, All Saints and Craig David were well-known music acts playing after racing. The BHA and British racecourses have faced criticism for the atmosphere and nature of such events and a legitimate has been asked; are people actually coming to watch the racing or just showing up before the last race to get a position in front of the stage?

ENCOURAGING

In this case, it was more than encouraging to read earlier in the week figures released from Ascot that told 84% of the attendance at Ascot on Saturday were on site by 1:15pm. And you only have to look at the huge crowds on the 20-deep on the rails to gauge the level of interest. There to enjoy the whole day of racing.

Getting this sort of clientele is absolute gold to racing. A superb opportunity to sell the sport.

So is it time we tried something like this in Ireland? It wouldn’t have to be a direct copycat competition and it wouldn’t have to be international. It could be Ireland v Britain or Leinster v Munster or Cork v Kildare v Tipperary v Carlow or Girls v Boys or Jumps v Flat or Apprentices vs Over 40s. It just needs to be something for the crowd to latch onto combined with a music act afterwards.

All you have to do is look at the year-on year success of the latest edition of ‘Hurling for Cancer’ to see the good use of creating a team atmosphere and borrowing Irish sports people’s tribal propensity to create a unique event.

This sort of event would need investment and it would need good organisation, something along the lines of Irish Champions Weekend-type organisation. But surely, given Ascot’s success, this is worth a punt?